Sting 2023 returns to Jamworld - Will showcase ‘10 giants of dancehall’

Sting, 'the greatest one-night show on Earth', returns to its Jamworld, Portmore, St Catherine home this year to celebrate its 40th anniversary, having moved in 2022 to Grizzly's Plantation Cove in St Ann.

"Plantation Cove is a very nice venue, but Jamworld is my home. I'm back home. So people .... all the walk-foot from Portmore and those who can jump in dem taxi from Kingston... Sting is back at Jamworld," Supreme Promotions CEO Isaiah Laing, told THE STAR on Tuesday at the signing of dancehall artiste, Suspense to Savage Entertainment.

At Sting's launch last November last year, Entertainment Minister Olivia Grange, announced that the Government had acquired the 70-acre Jamworld property.

"The venue is not ready yet, but within two weeks the renovations will start," Laing shared.

Addressing some of the contentious issues that surfaced last year, Laing started with the line-up. In a departure from 2022, which saw the team ditch veteran acts in favour of a gaggle of current artistes, Sting will be headlined by "the 10 giants of dancehall".

"We never ditched veterans. At least, I, Isaiah Laing, never did that," he insisted.

"But, if the team seh we going a particular way, I work wid it. But changes have to be made, and the change is I am going for my veterans... yuh know, Beenie, Bounty, Sizzla, Capleton ... mi done," a laughing Laing said.

Quizzed if the acts were signed and if he had any concerns that the veterans would still be feeling dissed and refuse to participate in Sting 2023, a confident Laing said he could count on them to understand.

"No, they are not signed, but this is Sting, this is their culture. We will be talking very soon. They knew it wasn't me who made that decision," he stated.

Asked if he was passing the buck, Laing admitted, "Yes ... yes. The bus haffi run over somebody."

Regarding the A'mari-Queenie brouhaha on stage that saw Sting take a lashing, but had it trending afterwards, Laing said that clash "wasn't in [his] books any at all" and that it was the people who demanded it.

"I knew something was planned from another company for something to happen on stage. If you notice, the artiste never came out to work, the artiste came out to fight," he stated.

And the backstage fracas which ended Sting abruptly?

"The reason for that stampede is that the police said that the show should stop and Heavy D asked everybody to come on stage to at least do a song. Because everybody was rushing to get on stage at the same time, and the police was saying too much people up there, and so the fracas start. If I were on that stage it couldn't have been done that way," he said.

'Inexperienced stage managers' was the criticism levelled at Sting, and Laing agreed, vowing to "put the real team back in place this year".